1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates generally to computer systems adapted to manage data elements on axes thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to data elements organization into multiple sets for the purpose of visualization against a unique collation criterion.
2. Background of the Invention
In content management systems (CMS) using an axis-based graphical user interface (ABGUI), an axis is used to display a portion of the computer files, or data elements represented as documents, contained in the system's database. The axis of documents locates documents thereon in a comprehensive and ordered fashion so that a viewer can infer meaning from the location of each document as opposed to a display where documents are arbitrarily disposed like the well-known personal computer desktop where documents are located in a more or less ordered fashion.
The documents, each of which is assigned by default or by the user a plurality of attributes based on its form and content, are thus organized into a meaningful layout, for instance an axis, according to a specified filtering criterion using document attributes (e.g. keyword, subject, document type, user, etc.) and to a collation function (e.g. chronological order, alphabetical order, statistical order, etc.).
For example, a user may build a query to retrieve all documents corresponding to a specified filtering criterion, e.g. “patent issued in 2012”, and to visualize them on an axis, collated on the basis of their issue dates, in chronological order. Further to this query, all documents containing the attribute “patents” for the year 2012 would thus appear on an axis along a time-line, forming a first set of documents. This is simple and intuitive and axes can generally be created, modified or deleted at will simply by building different queries.
For various reasons however, it is often desirable for users to view more than one set of documents at once on the same axis. For instance, in order to efficiently assess progress in a client's file, the user may wish to view all his or her patent prosecution documents in chronological order, and further bundle together all documents contained within this set that specifically pertain to Official Letter X. And so on with additional levels of grouping within sets.
But organizing and viewing documents as a collection of sets along a unique axis can be problematic if the documents contained thereon are stored in the database under a different date than the one at which the user wants the secondary set of documents to appear on the axis. For instance, the documents linked to Official Letter X (Office communication, cited art, etc.) may have been created long before or much later than the communication date of Official Letter X. They would normally appear at their respective date of creation along the axis. As a matter of fact, Official Letter X itself, having a communication date of January 1st, may have been received and docketed into the database at a later date, for example January 15. It may nonetheless be more useful to the user to if placed at the January 1st position on the axis. Grouping together all the documents according to their relationship with Official Letter X at the communication date of Official Letter X would therefore require re-locating them at a position that does not correspond to their attributes as entered in the system.
Furthermore, documents related to the secondary set, in this case Official Letter X, may include documents that are not on the first axis. This could be the case for patent art that is only cited in relation to Official Letter X but does not have the attribute “patents issued in 2012” and therefore is not represented on that axis. This in turn poses challenges at the database level in retrieving and organizing documents that may be referenced according to different referencing modes, namely referenced by a parent document, referencing a document or neither referencing nor referenced by another document, i.e. standalone documents.
In this particular example, arranging documents into multiple sets along the same axis would imply that prosecution documents are organized chronologically except for documents related to Official Letter X, which, regardless of their respective issue date, would be placed on the axis at the January 1st location. Patent art documents are going to be located on an axis to which they do not inherently belong and at a location different than their respective issue date. Finally, the order in which documents in the secondary set are organized may be different from the chronological order governing the axis. The user may, for example, wish to collate documents associate with Official Letter X by alphabetical order or by file type. For all these reasons, it can therefore be difficult and counterintuitive to represent multiple sets of documents graphically on a unique axis.
Organizing multiple sets of documents on a unique axis can also pose certain difficulties related to visually distinctive features (VDF's). VDF's can be ascribed to individual documents or sets thereof in the form of colors, shapes, shading, direction, etc., in order to visually signal their particularity vis-à-vis other documents. The conditions for assigning VDF's can therefore vary based on a given document's belonging to one set or another and on the hierarchy of sets queried.
It is nonetheless often desirable to organize documents in such a way. Indeed, grouping certain documents by user name, project, client, or keyword, etc. independently of the documents' dates and the attribute governing the axis can more readily help a user achieve certain goals such as assessing progress, estimating workload, etc.
There is therefore a need in the art of axis-based content management systems for a method and system of ordering and displaying on a unique axis multiple sets of documents governed by distinct collation criteria, treating the collation criteria of each set as autonomous from that governing the axis while visually maintaining the hierarchy between the different sets of documents on the axis. There is also a need in the art for computer-readable instructions that sort through documents contained in a database and referenced therein according to different default and user-specified attributes in relation to other documents. There is also a need in the art for assigning VDF's to documents and sets of documents in a manner coherent with the document's position within a given set.
Other deficiencies will become apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains in view of the following summary and detailed description with its appended figures.